Musical score plus Azerbaijani
words for Azerbaijan's National Hymn are available in magazine

Above: Uzeyir Hajibeyov (left) with friends, Ramazan
Khalilov (now 94 and current Director of the Museum of Hajiybeyo)
and Suleyman Alaskarov (prominent composer who teaces at the
Acadmey of Music). Hajibyeov died in 1948, Khalilov in 1948.
Photo: Courtesy of Hajibeyov Musuem.

Uzeyir
Hajibeyov(oo-ZEH-yir
Ha-ji-BEH-yov) (1885-1948) is not very well known in the West
although Azerbaijanis consider him one of their most brilliant
and beloved composers. He has been compared with the giants of
Soviet music including composers such as Prokofiev, Shostakovich,
Kachaturian, Kabelevski and Jerinski. Some would even suggest
that "he led the pack".

The city of Shushaused
to be famous for its annual "Mugam Festivals" where
the musical tradition of mugams was performed outdoors near the
gigantic statue to the memory of Hajibeyov whose birthplace was
near Shusha. Hajibeyov is remembered for his dedication in preserving
this music that has been played in Azerbaijan for hundreds of
years. He devoted his life to guarantee that the nuances of mugam
music would not be lost to future generations. The last Shusha
Festival, shown here, was in 1988. Because of the Conflict in the Karabakh region, Shusha
has been occupied by Armenia forces since 1992 and all Azeris
have fled. Azeris insist that they want Shusha back as it was
their cultural center of music and art. In the meantime, the
Mugam Festival is being organized in Shakisince November 1994. Photos: Fatali
Fataliyev.

Hajibeyov was the first composer in the entire Soviet Union,
not just in Azerbaijan, ever awarded the title, "People's
Artist of the USSR". During the entire Soviet history, only
three or four Azerbaijani musicians ever attained this level.
He was also honored with the medal of "Lenin's Order"
and "Stalin's Prize" which he won twice, once for the
opera, "Koroglu" (1937), and the other for the 1945
movie based on his opera, "Arshin Mal Alan" (For
plot, see AI 2:3, 64).

September 18th, 1995, marks the 110th Anniversary of Hajibeyov's
birth. No one in the history of modern music in Azerbaijan is
recognized for having done more to lay the foundation for Azerbaijani
music as it exists today, especially with its unique synthesis
of Eastern and Western traditional musical instruments and musical
forms.

Born in 1885, Uzeyir Hajibeyov's lifetime spans a period of incredible
political chaos, upheaval and transition. His first 32 years
were lived under the Russian czar, followed by two years under
the independent fledgling Democratic Republic of Azerbaijan. The
remaining 28 years of his life were under Soviet authority until
his untimely death in 1948, at the age of 63, when he died of
complications aggravated by his diabetes.

Hajibeyov was no stranger to the tragic chaos of war; he lived
through the Revolutions of 1905 and 1917, the attack on Azerbaijan
by Soviet troops in 1920, and both World Wars. The political
repercussions of these military conquests were often manifest
in other forms of chaos. For example between 1920 and 1930,the
alphabet systems for writing Azeri were changed three
times - from Arabic to Latin and Cyrillic - a process which greatly
hindered and interrupted the educational and cultural process
and may well have been one of the factors influencing him to
present his ideas verbally on the musical stage. (See AI 1:3,
September 1993)

The economic system underwent radical change under the Soviet
system. Private wealth was confiscated and redistributed to the
masses. Oil barons who had built mansions and palaces on the
main streets of Baku at the turn of the century were often evicted,
and sometimes even murdered, on their own premises, and their
residences were converted into public institutions, quite often,
museums.

The Great CompromiserBut throughout all this
tumultuous change, one characteristic consistently reflects the
character of this great genius. Hajibeyov always searched for
ways to merge and integrate the past with the present rather
than to discard either form. He was the great compromiser. His
mind was flexible enough to synthesize what others saw as irreconcilable
viewpoints.

Rather curiously, even files at the boarding school where he
attended secondary school (Gory Seminary in Georgia) have shown
his persistence in holding on to his own roots even under pressure.
On December 3, 1900, when he was 15, it is noted that "the
student, Uzeyir Hajibeyov, was rebuked because he was talking
in his native language."

Musical Laboratory
- ShushaMuch of Hajibeyov's
early musical education was informal. It might be said that much
of his musical instinct was acquired by osmosis, since he grew
up totally surrounded by music. Born in the village of Agjabedi
near Shusha, Uzeyir was the second child of Abdul Husein, a clerk
and village writer, and his attractive wife, Shirin Khanum.

Shusha in those days had a reputation for its musical heritage
and was often referred to as "the Music Conservatory of
the Caucasus" because of its many talented musicians and
singers.

Today, Shusha, located inside
the Karabakh region has been occupied by Armenian military forces
since 1992. Not a single Azerbaijani lives there (with the exception
of those who might be held hostage) as all others have fled the
region.

But the fact that Hajibeyov grew up in Shusha explains how at
22, in 1908, with very little formal musical education, he was
capable of writing a full-length opera. "Leyli and Majnun" a tragic
love story by the poet Fizuli, would be the
first of 7 operas and 3 musical comedies that he would compose.
The uniqueness of the traditional modal music of "mugam"
was incorporated into the Western genre of opera via the use
of instruments indigenous to both traditions.

Traditional vs.
EuropeanHajibeyov's second opera
in 1909 was written in a form entirely opposite to the first.
This time he employed a purely European style. "Sheik Senal"
received raves as a musical composition, but the content was
too progressive for the period. Hajibeyov advocated that marriage
should not be bound by nationality or religion-in essence, it
was another form of integration. But this time, it backfired.

The story line follows a religious
Sheik on his way to Mecca who meets a very beautiful Georgian
lady. To his horror, the lovely creature's father turns out to
be a swineherd, caring for what, to him, was a forbidden animal.
In the end, the sheik denies his religion to win the woman.

It is said that when the opera was performed, many people were
offended and walked out, leaving Hajibeyov with the realization
that he had outpaced his generation too much this time. As a
result, he made a drastic decision and burned the score.

When asked by Ramazan Khalilov, his assistant, how
he could do that, Hajibeyov replied. "I didn't destroy my
opera. It's my own creation so it's always in my head."
Khalilov said that Hajibeyov went on to use this same magnificent
music 27 years later to create, "Koroglu", an opera
that many acclaim to be his finest.

Emancipation for
WomenHajibeyov devoted much
energy to the idea of integrating woman's role and status into
the male-dominated world. The concept of women's emancipation
runs through many of his works often in the form of comedy or
satirization as in the case when he makes fun of the process
of selecting marriage partners, a process hindered by the fact
that women were still wearing veils until
the 1920s when the Soviet regime prohibited them.

Intellectual ContributionsIn 1921, the composer
wrote an essay on the issue of whether Azerbaijanis should spend
time, effort, and money to learn European musical culture. "We
won't succeed in educating our people musically if we conceal
from them the creations of such geniuses such as Bach, Beethoven
and Mozart."

Conversely, when Russian-influenced
musicians tried to ban traditional Azerbaijani instruments like
the tar, zurna and kamanche, Hajibeyov and his colleagues pushed
to incorporate them into the Western orchestra, thereby, giving
them an even higher status.

In 1927, he published "Collection of Azerbaijani Folk Songs"
with the Composer Muslim Magomayev. It was the
first time, many of the songs had been documented by notation.
In 1931, he helped established the first "Note Orchestra
for Traditional Folk Instruments" under the Radio Committee.
This orchestra performed pieces by Glinka (a famous Russian orchestral
composer), along with Mozart, Shubert, Bizet and others.

In 1936, he helped establish the first Azerbaijan Choral Group
at the Philharmonia. One of the most serious problems he faced
was that the repertoire of Azerbaijani folk songs were mono-voiced,
thus harmonization could easily distort the folk song style and,
on occasion, even alter the melody line when it changed modes.
Hajibeyov resolved this problem by using "contrapuntal polyphony
and unison doubling rather than four-part singing" in these
sections. But it's one more example of synthesizing the old with
the new.

In 1945, he published "The Basis of Folk Music in Azerbaijan"
which is even available in English today. One of Hajibeyov's
greatest legacies was in helping establish a professional music
school (now called the Music Academy) which has trained Azerbaijan's
finest composers such as Gara Garayev, Fikrat Amirov, Jovdat Hajiyev, Soltan Hajibeyov, Tofig
Guliyevand even Vagif Mustafazade, who combined mugam
with jazz improvisations. The school is still the highest musical
institution in Azerbaijan. His statue "sits" in front
of this grand building that is still devoted to the synthesizing
Eastern and Western musical traditions.

Anar is recognized as one of Azerbaijan's prominent writers
and thinkers. In 1985, he wrote the screen play and directed
a two-part documentary on the life of great composer to commemorate
Hajibeyov's 100th Anniversary. Anar is President of the Azerbaijan
Writer's Union.

Ramazan Khalilov, 94, was Hajibeyov's
assistant. He is the individual most responsible for helping
carry on the memory of Hajibeyov's legacy. Since 1974, he has
been Director of the Hajibeyov Museum which was created in composer's
home. Mr. Khalilov is still very active in the Museum and has
detailed memories of his years working together.